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Copy 1 



Town 
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Site of the Crown Coffee House and Fidelity Trust Co. Building in 1916 



Qlrnmn (Jnffrt ^BUBr 

A Story of Old Boston 



WALTER Kf WATKINS 




Published by 

HENDERSON & ROSS 

Boston 

1016 



ri3 



Copvric;ht 1916 
Hendkrson & Ross 



/ 

m 23 1916 

)CI.A42736l) 



^gor^morb 



In presenting this history of one of Boston's 
old taverns ive not only give to the readers its 
ancient history bat also shonv ho<zo the locality 
developed, at an early day, from the mud flats 
of the "water front to a business section and 
^within the last quarter century has become the 
center of a commercial district. This story of 
the site of the Fidelity Trust Company Building, 
once that of the Cro'Tvn Coffee House, is from the 
manuscript history of ' ' Old Boston Taverns ' 'pre- 
pared by Mr. W, K. Watkins. Pictures and prints 
are from the collection of Henderson & Ross. 
Photographs by Paul J. Weber. 



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111' ''H§ 

t , . I ■■ "m ^. -«?♦■ 



I -.".'i 









State Street, with tlie Crown Coftee House Site 
in the middle background, 1916 



The High Street from the Market Place 



ye 

Crown 



Coffee 



House 




\ 1635 the High Street leading from 
the Market Place to the water, 
with its dozen of low thatched- 
roofed-houses was a great con- 
trast to the tall oiiice buildings 
of State Street of today. One 
of the latest ocean steamers 
would have hlled its length, ending as it did, 
in the earh' da>-s, at the waterside where Aler- 
chants Row now extends. 

At the foot of the Townhouse Street as it 
was later called, when the townhouse was built 
on the site of the Old State House, was the 
Town's \\ A\ to the flats. 

At low tide fiats extended several hundred 
feet into the river or harbor. At an early day 
the first settlers along the waterfront were 
given leave to ''wharf before" their properties 
into the harbor. Between the Town's W a\' 
before mentioned and the Town Dock (Dock 



Thomas Venner, the Cooper 



Square) were half a dozen properties with this 
privilege. Next the Town's Way was the ware- 
house and wharf of Edward Tyng a prominent 
merchant of the town. 

Among his buildings was a brew house, and 
next north of him was the wharf of Thomas 
Venner, cooper, who was kept busy on the beer 
barrels of his neighbor and the casks in which 
fish were shipped to England and the West 
Indies. Venner had come to Salem in 1638 
but evidently his restless religious spirit, which 
later brought him notoriety, caused his removal 
to Boston in 1644. In 1648, he with other 
coopers formed a Coopers' guild, similar to the 
trade guilds in England, the earliest trade organ- 
ization in Boston. His religious beliefs pre- 
vented his admittance to the Boston church and 
in October, 1651, he sailed from Boston. The 
General Court said of him "Venner (not to say 
whence he came to us) went out from us because 
he was not of us." In 1657, he had become 
leader of a band of fanatical religionists in 
London who styled themselves, "Fifth Mon- 
archy Men." They held the belief that four 
great kingdoms, Assyrian, Persian, Macedonian 
and Roman, after dominion over the world had 
passed away, and they were to establish a fifth, 
the new kingdom of Christ, the Millenium. 

After four years' disturbances, in January, 
1661, Venner proclaimed the establishment of 



>bt 



The Fifth Monarchy Riots 



the kingdom of Jesus and proclaimed the kilHng 
of those who resisted his plans. With 500 fol- 
lowers he rushed through London's streets and 
killed innocent citizens. A force of volunteers 
and the city militia surrounded the remnant of 
Venner's forces and twent}' leaders were tried 
and all but four sentenced to be drawn, hanged 
and quartered. Venner with nineteen wounds, 
received in encounters, was drawn on a sledge 
from Newgate to Coleman Street, where his 
meeting house was located. There he was 
hanged and quartered and the head of the 
Boston cooper was set upon a pole on London 
bridge. Edward Tyng, his neighbor, was more 
of a conformer to the religion of the town and 
accumulated worldly goods in his trade and 
mercantile pursuits. By trade he was an uphol- 
ster, and came from the parish of St. Michaels, 
Cornhill, London — Cornhill was the settlement 
in London of theUpholders or Fripperers, dealers 
in second-hand clothes. They were also dealers 
in second-hand skins and furs. B}- the middle 
of the 14th century they dealt in cushions, 
portable cupboards, curtains, feather beds, and 
carpets, and even furnishings for funerals. By 
the 17th century they had become furniture 
warehouse men. Besides this trade, Tyng had 
branched out and become one of the early 
merchants who were the pioneer exporters of 
fish, oil and furs and importers of wines and the 







Fr,c>m an 77mr//^. Prmt m- i^r. d'/Zerf^ffn or" 



The Site of the Fidelity Trust Company's Building 
off the end of Mr. Venner's Wharf in i6:;o 



Edward Tyng^ Upholster 



manufactured ,e:oods of Europe. His warehouse 
and those of his neighbors, along the waterside, 
gave in Later }-cars to the street the name of 
Merchants Row. He returned to Enghand in 
1639 and was married to Erances Sears, ol 
Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. This place 
is near Dunstable in that count}^ and the country 
place of Tyng, in New England, was given the 
name of Dunstable in which town he died in 
1681. 

Thirty years previous, in 1652, he had solci, 
"my wharfe in Boston against the end of the 
Great Street and interest in the flats before it 
down to low water-mark," to James Everell, 
shoemaker. The property was bounded south 
b}- the town's wa}- down upon the flats and north 
by the wharf and line of Mr. Venner, east by the 
channel or low water-mark. 

James Everell, though styled shoemaker, was 
not of the more humble standing of the present 
da}' shoemaker but rather that of the manufac- 
turer of footwear on a large scale. He was often 
a selectman of the town and his land possessions 
were large and his house was near the town dock 
a most important business section of the town. 

Everell later disposed of the property to John 
Evered alias Webb, who came to Boston from 
Marlborough in Wiltshire, England. His house 
in Boston was on the site of the Old Corner 
Book Store. In 1650 he was at Chelmsford 



J'.;<ic 



Whale Fishing in Boston Harbor 



traffickingwitli the Indians and his property there 
he named "Drayeott upon Merrimack" after 
the village of Draycot Foliat six miles north of 
Marlborough, England. In 1668 while on a 
fishing frolic in Boston he was drowned off the 
Castle on Castle Island. While catching a 
whale the line became coiled about his waist 
and the whale suddenly, come to life, drew him 
overboard. 

In 1664 Evered sold his wharf to William 
Alford, a merchant, the property having a depth 
from the front on the street, to the rear, of 146 
feet. 

Alford came to Salem in 1634 from London 
where he was a member of the Skinners Company, 
its members dealing in skins and furs. He had 
favored the party in Boston headed by Ann 
Hutchinson and dwelt for a while at New Haven. 
He came to Boston purchased the wharf and 
died here in 1677. One of his daughters, Mary, 
married a Peter Butler, said to have been of 
the Marquis of Ormond's famih' in Ireland. 
On his death she married Hezekiah Usher, a 
bookseller, who dwelt opposite the town house 
on the north side of the street. Usher died and 
she married a third husband, Samuel Nowell, 
who was of great prominence in the colony. 
A preacher, though not a settled minister, 
Nowell was chaplain of the Massachusetts 
regiment in King Philip's War, acting with 



l';ii;v ihirU 



Boston's First Land Improvement 



great personal braver}'. A member of both 
branches of the General Court he became 
Treasurer of the Colony just before the Andros 
troubles in 1685. He then went to England 
with Increase Mather as agent of the colony 
and died in London in 1688. 

His wddow died in 1693 leaving the property, 
which had become known as Nowell's Wharf, to 
her children, by her first husband, Peter Butler. 

On September 10, 1673, the selectmen of the 
town drew up a plan for the erecting of a wall 
or wharf upon the flats before the town to extend 
from the Sconce or battery at the base of Fort 
Hill to Scarlett's Wharf at the foot of Fleet 
Street at the North End. This was to secure 
the town from the fireships of an enemy. This 
wall was to be 2,200 feet in length and to be a 
breastwork 14 or 15 feet high with guns mounted 
on the same. Some fifty shore owners agreed to 
perform their part in the plan and were given 
rights to erect wharves and warehouses in the 
enclosed space. William Alford's proportion in 
the project was one huncired feet and the next 
quarter century was to witness the first great 
improvement in the growth of the town's area 
and was done by the proprietors incorporated 
by an act of the General Court in 1 681. 

By this plan the wharf owners were entitled to 
build up to a line called ''the circular line" the 
space between this line and the sea wall forming 



Piij^v fifteen 



ymjl [:}in3^i/-^^f/: 



~\ 
















-r -.-- 


w \ 


It 


iji 1 





Boston Pier or Long Wharf 



an Inner harbor. In 1707, Mr. Henry Dering, 
a merchant of the town, proposed to the select- 
men — "That it would be a benefit to this Town 
and tend to the encourragement of the Trade 
thereof to have a wharffe built from the Lower 
end of the Town House Street to run from thence 
to the Out-Wharves, or Low Water mark. And 
that the Town do grant their right in )'e flatts 
unto such persons who shall undertake to be at 
the charge thereof." The result was that after 
agitation and action on the rights of the shore 
owners in building wharves within the sea wall, 
which had gradually gone to decay, the Boston 
Pier or Long Wharf was erected. 

Historians and others describing the project 
state that the wharf was to run from the end of 
King Street to the Circular Line and to low 
water mark. The agreement of the proprietors 
as given in the town records, was "at our own 
cost and charge erect and build a wharf, with a 
sufficient Common Shore (at the Approbation 
of the Selectmen) at the end of King Street to 
the Circular Line as delineated by the Plan, 
and that from thence zve zvill Erect, build and viain- 
taine a wharfe'^ etc. (13 Mch. 1709/10) 

This shows that the shore or flats were 
improved b}- preparing the bottom of King 
Street to connect, as a highway, with the new 
wharf, which was to hegiii at the (Circular Line. 



I'm 




Il.inpJhnc ^ \\T 



Mafhtlmkl 



v., 






Governor Uelcher who built the Crown CotTee House 



The Crown Coffee House Built 



This agreement was entered into b}' Captain 
Ohver Xoyes and five others, the original pro- 
prietors. Later others joined the projeet, among 
them was Jonathan Belcher, to whom was 
granted numbers one and two at the King 
Street end of the wharf. Belcher was the son 
of Andrew Belcher an opulent merchant of 
Boston. After graduating at the age of seven- 
teen from Harvard, in 1699, the son travelled 
abroad many years. He was a member of the 
Council for five years and agent in England for 
the Province. He became governor in 1730 
and held the office for eleven years. In 1747, he 
was made governor of New Jerse}' and held the 
office till his death in 1757. On his allotment 
on Long Wharf, he built after the fire of 171 1, the 
wooden building to be known for over half a 
century as the Crown Coft'ee House. 

The Crown seems to be one of the oldest of 
English signs. We read of it as early as 1467, 
when a certain W^alter Walters, who kept the 
Crown Lm in Cheapside, made an innocent 
pun, saying he would make his son heir to the 
Crown, w^hich so displeased his gracious majest}-. 
King Edward IV, that he ordered the man to be 
put to death for high treason. 

The Crown Inn at Oxford was kept by Dav- 
enant (Sir William Davenant's father). Shake- 
speare, in his frequent journeys between London 
and his native place, generally put up at this 



I';il;c nineteen 



The Crown Inn in England 



inn, and the maHcious world said that young 
Davenant (the future Sir Wihiam) was somewhat 
nearer related to him than as a godson only. 
One day, when Shakespeare had just arrived, 
and the boy was sent for from school to see him, 
a master of one of the colleges, pretty well ac- 
quainted with the affairs of the family, asked 
the boy why he was going home in so much 
haste, who answered, that he was going to see 
his godfather Shakespeare. "Fie, child," said 
the old gentleman, "why are you so superfluous? 
Have you not learnt yet that you should not 
use the name of God in vain?" 

On the site occupied by the present Bank of 
England there used to stand four taverns; one 
of them bore the sign of the Crown, and was 
certainly in a good line of business, for, according 
to Sir John Hawkins, it was not unusual in those 
toping days to draw a butt (120 gallons) in half- 
pints, in the course of a single morning. 

About the same period there was another 
Crown Tavern in Duck Lane, West Smithfield. 
One of the rooms in that house was decorated by 
Isaac Fuller (ob. 1672) with pictures of the 
AIuscs, Pallas, Mars, Ajax, Uh'sses, etc. Ned 
Ward praises them highly in his "London Spy." 
"The dead figures appeared with such lively 
majesty that the}' begot reverence in the spec- 
tators towards the awful shadows." Such 



Thomas Selby, Periwigmaker 



painted rooms in taverns were not uncommon 
at that period. 

The first landlord of the Crown was Thomas 
Selby who was admitted an inhabitant of the 
town February 20, 1709I10, Jonathan Belcher 
being his security. By occupation Selby was a 
periwigmaker but with it combined his duties 
as host of the Crown, where he was licensed to 
sell strong drink as an inn holder. The Coffee 
House was not alone a place of refreshment but 
was also the place for vendue or auction sales 
of all sorts. 

"Lately taken from the Crown Coffee House 
in Boston a good Beaver Hatt, never dress'd, 
with a hole burnt in the brim about the bigness 
of a pea. Whoever brings the same to Mr. 
Selb}' at the said Coffee House shall receive 
I OS. reward." 

'To be sold by Thomas Selb}" at the Crown 
Coffee House, All sorts of good wines from the 
pipe to the pint on reasonable terms." 

"At 5 o'clock at publick vendue at the Crown 
Coft'ee House, Long Wharf, a Collection of 
Choice and Curious Books of Di\inity, History, 
Poetry, Voyages and Tra\els. X. B. To be 
sold at the same time and place a Collection of 
Curious Pamphlets, Plays and A laps." This 
was not however his only connection with 
literary products. In the New England Courant 
(Franklin's paper) from 17 July to 28 August, 



I';il;c twciitv 



Selby's View of Boston 



1725, there was advertised "A new and correet 
prospect of the town . . . curioush' engraved." 
The title of the view was "A South East View of 
ye Great Town of Boston in New England in 
America," and was dedicated to Governor 
Samuel Shute by Thos. Selby and William Price. 
In the view are lift}' references to places of note 
or interest in the town. A list of them is given 
in the key below the view. Number 25 is noted 
as "Thomas Selby's Coffee House," and depicts 
a three story building of the period at the head 
of Long Wharf. 

Selby married, Mehitable, daughter of James 
Bill of Boston and Pulling Point (Wintlirop). 
In 1720, Selby and his wife mortgaged his hold- 
ings he had bought adjoining Mr. Jonathan 
Belcher's house and land called the Crown 
Coffee House to his mother-in-law and brother- 
in-law, Mehitable Bill and North Ingram. 
Selby died at the Crown Coffee House, 19 Sep- 
tember 1727, aged 54. As he was an active 
member of Kings Chapel and vestr}'man from 
1722 to 1727 he was buried in a tomb in or near 
the chapel. At the time of his decease there 
\\as li\-ing with him William Burgis, the engraver 
of the \iew previous!)- described, and also of 
"A South Prospect oi' ye Flourishing City of 
New 1 ork," done in 17 17. Besides a prosperous 
trade and an interest of £659 from the estate of 
Selb\-, the widow had propert}^ in her own right. 



■nlv-Lhrci 



Edward Lutwych, Taverner 



Burgis won this prize and married the widow, 
after a widowhood of one year, and petitioned 
to be a taverner at the Crown Coffee House 
which was allowed in Juh', 1729. 

In the following July, 1730, he was disallowed 
and in his place Edward Lutw}'ch was allowed 
to the "Crown Coff}^ House." In the following 
winter, after a series of lawsuits against him, 
Burgis is noted as being out of the Province. 
In 1736, his wife, Mehitable, petitions that her 
husband having got what he could of her estate 
into his hands, about five years since, left her 
and has never returned into the Province again, 
and she prayed a divorce. After being deserted 
the widow had other hard luck, was arrested for 
selling liquor without a license and keeping a 
noisy and disorderh' house. This was not, 
however, a blot on the reputation of the"Crown," 
as the widow had left its management and the 
landlord was then Edwarci Lutwych. Lutw}'ch 
was of a prominent family of that name in 
Shropshire, England. A brother, Lawrence 
Lutwych, of Boston had been a distiller of 
Radnor, South Wales, and had married Sarah, 
daughter of Deacon James Lindall of Salem. 
Edward married for a first wife in 1727, Thankful 
widow of Joseph Parmenter. On her death he 
married Elizabeth, widow of David Craigie, 
formerly Elizabeth Taylor, one of the heirs of 
James Taylor, Treasurer of the Province 1693- 



Piiifc twentv-foui 



Widow Ann Clements 



1 714. This shows his social standing and as a 
subscriber to the New England Chronology of 
the Rev. Thomas Prince he evidenth' had 
literar}- tastes. He was one of several Boston 
people who in 1735 petitioned for land at what 
was later Gra}', Maine. In 1740, he was a 
subscriber to the Massachusetts Land Bank. 
In 173 1 Lutwych had leased land at Hopkinton, 
Mass., and about 1735 he left the Crown Coffee 
House and resided at Hopkinton till his death 
in 1745. 

His successor at the Crown in 1735, was the 
widow, Ann Clements, who had previously 
retailed strong drinks around the corner opposite 
the "Golden Ball" in Merchants Row. She 
was a daughter of Matthew and Susanna 
(Walker) Jones and married in 1714, Jeremiah 
Clements, felmonger or hatter. They had sev- 
eral children and in 1726 she petitioned for a 
divorce having been deserted, two years pre- 
vious, by her husband, who w^as then at Marble- 
head, he being interested in other women and 
having assaulted her. At that time she was 
employed by Luke \"ardy, the landlord of the 
Exchange Tavern. Her experience there fitted 
her to run the Crown, her husband having died 
in 1732. Soon after taking the Crown she 
married William Swords, mariner, and kept the 
tavern while he followed the sea for a living. 



I'u!j;c i\vcnLv-ti\ 



Samuel Wethered^ Innkeeper 



In 1 741, Swords leased a shop near the ToAvn 
Dock and his wife evidently gave up the Crown 
for a year in 1742 and later returned. In 1750 
she stated she had kept a tavern for twenty- 
years and had kept the Crown Coffee House for 
the past ten years. 

In 1742 Samuel W'ethered kept the "Crown" 
for about a year; from there he removed to the 
"Rose and Crown" Tavern on the south-west 
corner of King (State) and Pudding Lane 
(Devonshire Street). In 1743 he kept the 
Bunch of Grapes on tiie corner of King Street 
and Mackerel Lane (Kilby Street), when "the 
antient loyal and hospitable Society of Callicoes" 
met there that year. He took part in the 1745 
expedition to Louisburg and after its capture 
kept a tavern there. 

He served in the expedition of 1758 which 
went to Fort Craven and the Oneida Carrying 
Place, being the lieutenant of the Boston Com- 
pany, under Captain Richard Atkins. In 1759 
liis widow, Sarah (Thornton) Wethered, peti- 
tioned the (jcneral Court to sell the licjuors left 
in the house at his decease. 

In 1749, Andrew son of Governor Belcher as 
his attorne\' sold the Crow^n Coffee House to 
Richard Smith, innkeeper. Smith in 1738, had 
kept the Greyhound Tavern, which stood on 
Washington Street, opposite \^ernon Street, 
Roxbury. When purchased b}' Richard Smith 



^lUv-scven 



Robert Shillcock, His Majesty^s Cook 



It was then still in the oeeupation of the widow 
Swords. The house, a double one, was 40 by 30, 
the frontage on the south was 40 feet on I.onp 
Wharf, making a corner with King Street on the 
west, the depth of the building being 30 feet. 

In 1747, Robert Shillcock \\as cook on His 
Majest)"\s Ship Launceston and his wife Hannah 
was living at Plymouth, Devon, England. The 
Launceston was a fifth rate ship, of the British 
Nav}-, of 700 tons and a complement of about 
250 men. 

We find Shillcock in Boston in 1750 as in that 
}'ear he succeeded Mrs. Swords and the next 
year purchased the Crown Tavern estate from 
Richard Smith, and the property was held b}' 
his family until its demolition during the Revo- 
lution. During that period it had several 
landlords and landladies. In 1726, Rebecca 
Coffin kept it. She was probably the widow of 
Ga}-er Coffin of Nantucket who came to Boston 
and 1733 married Rebecca Parker. 

In 1766 it was kept by William Wheat. He 
was a son of Dr. Samuel Wheat of Newton and 
grandson of Moses Wheat of Concord. He was 
born in 1741, and started life as a trader in 
Boston His mother, Hannah (Hovcy) Wheat, 
was the daughter of Joseph Hovey, who kept 
the Blue Anchor Tavern, Cambridge, near the 
Market Place, (the northeast corner of Dunster 



William Wheat, Trader 



and Mount Auburn Streets) from 1705 to 1709. 
Though he might have inherited a taste to serve 
the pubHc as a landlord, Wheat did not attain a 
financial success and after a year removed to a 
house of William Edes on Fish (North) Street. 
In 1767 Richard Bradford took the Crown. 
He married in 1763, Rachel, daughter of Caleb 
and Rebecca (Lobdell) Loring. The tavern on 
Minot's T. Wharf was kept by Nicholas Lobdell 
in 1754. Mary Maverick applied to the keeper 
of the Crown in 1772 but was refused. She was 
the mother of Samuel Maverick, one of the 
Boston Massacre victims. In 1774, Thomas 
Waldo was licensed to retail at his shop on 
Long Wharf. Robert Shillcock owner of the 
Crown had two daughters born in Boston; 
Mar}' in 1752 and Joyce in 1754. Joy^^ 
married in 1773, William Williams, a mathemat- 
ical instruments maker. After the evacuation 
in 1776 the selectmen licensed various persons 
to retail liquors. "Williams and Vincent to 
retail at his shop in King Street." This refers 
most probably to William Williams and George 
Vincent. The latter afterwards was licensed 
to sell at Scarlett's Wharf where he died in 1782. 
In 1782 the widow Hannah Shillcock died 
having survived her husband eighteen years. 
An account of her husband's estate of which she 
was administratrix shows that the Crown Coffee 
House had disappeared before 17 March, 1783 



Pag-e thirty 



William Williams, Mathematical Instruments 



and the land was then valued at £120. Its 
disappearance is accounted for by a lire which 
occurred on 20 September, 1780. At two in the 
afternoon a fire broke out on Long Wharf, 
destroying the warehouse of Pitts and Call, 
Eliot's tobacco store and several other buildings 
including the Crown Coffee House. In October, 
1787 there had been erected two new stores on 
the site of the Crown at a cost of £495. These 
were erected by William Williams and Benjamin 
Brown of Wells, Maine, who had half an interest 
in the property. 

Benjamin Brown married 28 March, 1796, 
Mary Frances Selb}-. He is said to have married 
Eunice Orne of L\'nnfie]d in November, 1795, 
but the fact is that his intention to marr}- her 
was published on that date and after his marriage 
to Miss Selby, Miss Orne married, 23 December, 
1796, Rev. Aaron Green of Maiden. 

The east half of the Crown CoftVe House 
estate Number 2 Long Wharf, owned b}' Ben- 
jamin Brown in 1798, was occupied b}' Joseph 
Baxter, junior. It was valued at the same 
figures and was of the same size as the west half. 
Baxter was in the boot and shoe business, the 
same occupation as the owner of the site 150 
years previous, James Evrell, the shoemaker. 
Baxter had previously been in partnership with 
Christopher Marshall at 5 ALarlboro Street 



J';il;v thirl v-onc 



Benjamin Brown, of Wells, Me. 



(\\ ashington between Seliool and Winter Streets). 
jMarshall was a captain in his brother. Col. 
Thomas Marshall's Regiment in the Revolution. 
Baxter was also a military man but without the 
experiences of his partner. His services con- 
sisted of membership in the Ancient and Honor- 
able Artillery Company. He was about forty 
years younger than his partner, Marshall, and 
died in Fayette, Maine in 1828. 

Besides the store 2 Long Wharf, Brown owned 
several other stores on the Wharf and an interest 
in the Island Wharf on the south side of Long 
Wharf. He went to Philadelphia from Wells 
and died there suddenly in January, 1802. His 
widow, Mary Frances Brown, married Lewis 
Lecesne of New York. In later years she 
was a resident of Rio Janeiro. A daughter, 
Hannah Fisher Brown, married about 18 10 to 
Francis Desire Mason of Belleville, N. J., 
received the Long Wharf property from her 
father just previous to his death. 

It was on the death of Benjamin Brown in 
1802 that the wooden stores were replaced by 
brick structures. 

Williams occupied the store. Number One 
Long Wharf, for his trade as a mathematical 
instrument maker and resided on Quaker Lane 
(Congress Street). He died 15 January, 1792, 
at the age of forty-four years. 



I'.-ijav thirty- three 



S/o;/ of 
WILLIAM ]\ILLIAMS 



.oweft Prices, by Wholcfale oi -.a, for Ca, 

Mathematical Inftruments. 

William Williams 

Mathematical Inftrument Mak 

Has to fell at his Shop in King-Strert, two Doors Eaft of the 
Sign of Admiral Vernon, near the Head of the Long- 
Wharf, BOSTON. 
A Large AiTortmcnt of Hadley's and Davis's Quadrants, 
-'^ hanging and ftanding CompafTes, in Brafs and Wood I 
Gauging and Surveying Inftruments, Cafes of Inftruments, 
large and fmall Perfpcftive GlafTes, in Ivory, Wood and FiiTi- 
/kin, plotting Scales and Protra£lors, Gunter Scales and Di- 
viders, Surveyors Chains, Artificial Magnets with Cafes, Sand 
Glaffcs from z Hours to ^ Minute, Inftruments of a nev 
Conltrudlion to meafure Boards, Quarter Waggoners, Atkin 
fon's Epitome, Wilfon's ditto, Pattron's Navigation, Seaman 




mans 
ounj 



AlTiftants, Callendcrs, Mariners Compares redlified, Y 

Man's Companion, Journal Books, Ink-Powder, Quills & Pa 
per, an AiTortment of Brafs Pocket Compaffcs witli & with 
out Cards, Box Rul&s, Slates and Pencik, Penknives, Jack 
knives, &c. 

All Sorts of Mathematical Inftruments are made an., re- 
paired by the above William Williams. Those who will 
favour him with their Cuftom, may depend upon being well 
ufed, and have their Work done with Fidelit\' and Dlfpatch. 



N-AWAY/rom h\i Mafltr John Langdon, tht 
'-liant " Indented S 

{Boston Gazette, March 12, lyjo) 



John Osborn, Painter 



To be Sold. 

By order of the Supreme Judicial Court at 
Publick Vendue. On Friday the 19th inst. 
(instead of the 5th as has been advertized). 
Store No. i on Long Wharf being the Estate of 
the late William Williams, deceased. (Colum- 
bian Centinel, 9 March, 1793.) 

The purchaser was John Osborn. The prop- 
erty, valued at £1060, lawful mone\', was of 
wood and had a frontage of 20 feet on Long 
Wharf and ran back 30 feet to Spear's Wharf. 
In 1798, the store was taxed to John Osborn for 
^2(Soo.oo. 

John Osborn 

hiiportcd in the Ships Alinerva and ALary 
from London. Paints, Painters' Brushes, knives 
copal varnish, glaziers diamonds, etc. Sheet, 
Clock and Window Glass all sizes at his store 
Number One Long Wharf and his store at the 
South End. (Columbian Centinel, 19 Novem- 
ber, 1794.) 

Osborn was a painter and dealer in paints and 
oils. His family was engaged in that business 
in Boston for nearly a century. His father's 
shop and house in 1789 was on Orange Street 
(Washington Street south of Essex) on the south 
corner of Nassau now Common Street. His 
uncle Thomas, a painter, was at the North End, 
on Prince Street. The elder John died in 1792, 



I'm^c thinv-fi\ 




N'Mt , liiM of Pemberton Square in 
.>ite ot Court House on the left 




View of upper part of State Street in 1S04 



Early Residential Sections 



and the son succeeded to the business, reskhnc' 
on Atkinson Street (Congress Street) then a 
new residential section on Fort HilL A few 
years later he purchased and resided at number 
1 8 Franklin Place (Franklin Street) opposite 
the Tontine Crescent, the large brick block 
which had caused the street to be a select neigh- 
borhood. A century ago he invested in lands 
at West Boston on Olive (Mt. Vernon) street 
and on Cambridge Street where he resided just 
before his death in 1819. Though only forty- 
eight years old he left property valued at over 
$100,000 a goodh' estate a hundred years ago. 
John Osborn, junior, married in 1792, Catherine 
Macaulay Barbour, who after his death resided 
at 26 Fayette Place (Tremont Street between 
West and Boylston Streets). 

The Osborn property on Cambridge Street 
was situated between Chambers and Lynde 
Streets and some of the houses built on it b}' the 
Osborns survived in the 20th century. The 
propert}' was left to three children George 
Barbour Osborn, Catherine, Avho married Alex- 
ander Mactier of New York, and L}'dia, who 
was the second wife of Philip \^erplanck Hoffman 
uncle of the late Dean Hoffman of Xcw York. 
A daughter of Lydia (Osborn) Hoffman married 
the Vicomte Treilhard of Paris, and liad 
daughters who married into the French nobility. 



l';ii;v tliirly-sc 




View looking down State Street in 1880 




Interior of Store Room of Stearns & Crosby, Cliatham Street, corner of Chatham Row 
( Has not been changed since 1832) 



Hcwins and Tisdale 



In 1824, George B. Osborn, son of John, sold 
the store, Number One Long Wharf to Simon 
KoUock Hewins. Mr. Hewins was a native of 
Sharon. He married CaroHne, daughter of 
Colonel Daniel Brown. Mr. Hewins was in 
the leather business and in 1825 took as^ a 
partner. Mace Tisdale. The firm of Hewins 
and Tisdale not only dealt in skins and hides 
but also in "shoe notes," Mr. Tisdale as a 
director in the New England Bank having 
facilities for handling that kind of securities. 
In 1844, Hewins transferred to Tisdale his 
interest in the property- including the adjoining 
store, 2 Long Wharf, which Hewins acquired 
in 1833 from Levi Bartlett. 

Mr. Bartlett bought 2 Long Wharf in 1821 
from Benjamin Brown's heirs, having occupied 
it previously as a tenant for several \-ears. Mr. 
Bartlett was a dealer in West India Goods. 
For different )-ears he had as partners Aaron 
Woodman and Eben T. Farrington, and occupied 
stores at other locations (7 South Market Street 
and 7 Long Wharf), but in 1849, he returned to 
2 Long Wharf as Levi Bartlett ^ Co. In 1858 
the location became 146 and 148 State Street. 
Later the firm became Farrington, (Eben T.).. 
Tozier (.\ndrew S.) and Hall (Elven D.) 

In 1885 Dudley Hall, grocer, occupied the 
store. 



iliii tv-niiic 




Crown Coitee House and Fidelity Trust Co. Site in 1872 





!^""*'ls«i^^aJ 



State Street in 



Occupants in the Last Century 



In 1835, Henry Hitchcock and Nathaniel C. 
Nash, grocers, were located at 2 Long Wharf, 
and in 1845 Isaac Nash, grocer, was to be found 
there. The building at the corner of Chatham 
Street, Number One Long Wharf was occupied 
by its owners Tisdale and Hewins till 1844 
when they removed to 82 Water Street. At that 
time Mr. Hewins resided on the corner of 
Boylston Street and Head Place, a locality at 
the present time wholly devoted to business 
houses. His partner, Mr. Tisdale, resided at 
15 Rowc Street now known as Chauncy Street. 
The cellar of i Long Wliart was occupied for 
many }'ears by victuallers wdio supplied the 
wants of many laboring in the vicinity or visitors 
to the Custom House or Market. Among the 
occupants were Phineas Sawyer (1825), Constant 
Southworth and Mark Nutter (1835). In 1844 
Stephen S. & E. W. Stone, druggists, succeeded 
Tisdale & Hewins as occupants. In 1854, 
Alfred B. Hall & Co. (William F. Matchett and 
Daniel Perkins, junior) removed from 57 Broad 
Street to i Long Wharf. They were in business 
as merchandise brokers, and, in 1865, F. N. 
Thatcher was the junior partner. Here also 
was located Hall, Caldwell & Co., of which Seth 
Caldw^ell, junior, was a resident of Philadelphia. 
A. B. Hall & Co. occupied the corner till 1902. 

In 1903, William Bond & Son, Chronometers, 
removed to 148 State Street from the location 




a 



I-'idelity Trust Co. Site in iqi6 looking west 
towards the Old State House 



William Bond, Chronometers 



next door where tlie}' had been for several years. 
Before that they were at 112 State, moving 
there from 97 Water Street. At the time of the 
Great Fire of 1872 they were at 17 Congress 
Street. Their business was located on this last 
street for 66 years. The firm dates back to 
1793, when William Bond, watchmaker, was 
located at 32 Marlborough (\\\ashington) Street. 

In 1897 as an heir of the Tisdale estate there 
was conveyed the buildings 144, 146 and 148 
State Street to John Tisdale Bradlee, a son of 
John Rice Bradlee and Frances Ann Tisdale, 
the onh' child of \Iace Tisdale. His mother, 
a sister of the wife of S. K. Hewins, was a 
daughter of Lieut. Col. Daniel Brown, a Boston 
printer. 

It is interesting to note the rise of the A'alues 
of real estate on State Street, in the vicinit}' of 
the Custom House, as evidenced in the assessed 
valuations of the sites 144, 146 and 148 State 
Street for the last centur}-. The two wooden 
stores, I and 2 Long Wliarf, valued at ^2,800 
each in 1798, had by 181 5 been replaced b}- two 
brick stores, i Long Wharf in 18 15 was assessed 
for ^12,000; 2 Long Wharf was taxed for ^6,000. 

In 1825 Number One, the corner, was assessed 
at ^16,000, Number Two at ^11,600. In 1835 
the figures had risen to ^18,000 and ^12,000 the 
result of the opening of Chatham Row in 1827. 



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Valuations for 100 Years 



In 1845 the corner building ^28,000 and the 
next building ^18,000. 

In 1855 both had increased in ten Acars in 
value ^7,000 to $35,000 and $25,000. At the 
end of the Civil War in 1865, i Long Wharf had 
become 144 State Street, valued at $55,000 and 
2 Long Wharf was 146 and 148 State, valued 
at $33,000. After the Great Fire of 1872, the 
values as shown in 1875 were $65,000 and 
$38,000. 

In 1885 a depreciation is shown to $40,000 
for the corner, 144, and $31,000 for numbers 
146 and 148. 

In ten years in 1895 ^ slight rise appears to 
$56,000 and $44,000. Of this the valuations of 
the buildings were $5,000 each. 

In 1905 the property had doubled in value 
during the ten years. The valuation of $100,000 
for the two buildings in 1895, had become 
$202,000 in 1905. The past ten years has added 
another $100,000 and from its near location to 
the Custom House a rising increase may be 
expected for future decades. 



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New Fidelity Trust Company Building 
to be built on Site of Crown Coffee House 



THE FIDELITY TRUST CO. 



New times demand new men, new methods, 
new ideas, new institutions and so as the old 
Crown Coffee House gave way to buildings 
adapted to the spirit of the time, the march of 
progress again demands that these, in turn, give 
way to a building commensurate with 20th 
century conditions. Accordingly there came 
into being the Fidelity Building, burrowing deep 
into the bowels of the earth, far deeper than was 
the old Crown Coffee House in height, with 
foundations to keep back the waters of the 
nearby harbor, upon which rested the piles of 
the Crown Coft'ee House, and lifting its head 
high into the air, eleven stories above the ground. 

Fifty }'ears ago, one would hardly hazard 
the guess that the old Crown Coffee House 
site would be adapted for a structure, such as 
the Fidelity Building. State Street, at that 
point, hardly warranted an investment in an 
office building, of over three quarters of a million 
dollars; in fact, within the last half decade, 
such an investment would have been considered 
the dream of the speculator, rather than the 
judgment of men directing the affairs of an 



f/i'-e Inrtv-niiic 




Mr. James G. Ferguson 
President Fidelity Trust Company 



institution, consisting of the conservative ele- 
ment of metropolitan life; accordingly one 
might be led to ask, "Wh}- now?" Then the 
answer. 

Bank consolidations of the last two decades 
have gradually removed, from the great market 
section of Boston, financial institutions which 
were formerly in close personal touch with this 
class of their customers, who, h>' the very 
nature of their daily vocations, were men who 
rubbed elbows with their neighbors. They 
bought their goods from the farmer direct, 
proverbially unaccustomed to conventional 
methods. They sold their wares to the every- 
day grocer; who, by dealing direct with the 
consumer, was obliged to bring himself 
close to his customers; thus, by the very nature 
of this relationship, the market man required 
close personal contact with all men, not except- 
ing the banker, to whom he entrusted his funds 
for safe keeping. 

Recognizing their own need, a number of 
these market men met together and decided 
to organize a banking institution, which would 
more truly represent that group of business 
men, of which they were a part. Thus, in the 
early part of 1913, was born an idea; — an idea 
which culminated on Ma}- 15, 19 13, in the 
opening to the public of the Fidelity Trust 
Company. 

The new bank engaged ciuarters in the Board 
of Trade building, formerly occupied by an 



]';il;c lilly-onc 




Frank F. McLeou 
Treasurer Fidelity Trust Company 



institution now merged with another State Street 
Bank. The first president was Mr. Leonard 
H. Rhodes, a man known throughout the 
length and breadth of the City as one of Boston's 
most successful grocers; a self-made man and 
one who, for many years, had been on the 
closest and most intimate terms with the men 
of the market district. Feeling the strain of 
the added duties thus thrust upon him, Mr. 
Rhodes, at the end of the first year, asked to 
be relieved of his office. 

Again, however, Destiny came to the rescue, 
when Mr. Rhodes consented to act as one of 
the vice-presidents. After much persuasion, 
the directors succeeded in securing a man to 
fill the vacancy thus created, in the person of 
Mr. James G. Ferguson, one of two brothers 
who had built up the largest baking business 
in the east; a man who also had close personal 
relations with the group of men who had 
first conceived the idea of the institution, 
and thus, through the three years of its exist- 
ence, the Fidelity Trust Co. has justified its 
being. 

Problems have presented themselves, but 
they have been solved; for the Trust Company 
has proved itself a necessity to the community, 
which it serves. In no way, is this more 
apparent, perhaps, than in the steady growth 
of its deposits, which have been at the rate of 
one million dollars per year. 



J'niJC litiv- three 



When iirst organized, the capital of the 
Fidehty Trust Company was five hundred 
thousand dollars, with a surplus of one hundred 
thousand dollars. The strong healthy growth 
of its business, however, soon indicated that a 
larger capital was necessary, and, one year 
ago, the stockholders voted to increase the 
capital to one million dollars, with two hundred 
thousand dollars surplus, and the additional 
capital was soon over-subscribed. Not even 
then, however, did those guiding its affairs, 
dream that, within a short year, the growth of 
the bank would demand greatly enlarged quar- 
ters, but again were the ideas of its founders 
justified, and then, as new times demanded 
new conditions, it resulted in the erection of 
this beautiful new building of limestone and 
steel, designed b}' Mr. C J. Warren, assisted 
by a group of men who have scoured the 
country for the latest and best ideas in oflice 
building construction. The building is to be 
erected by the J. J. Prindiville Co. who have 
recently completed the new armor}^ on Com- 
monwealth Avenue for the state, and who bring 
to their task, experience gained in erecting 
many of the larger and more beautiful buildings 
of our Commonwealth. 

The directors of the Fidelil}' Trust Company- 
are justly proud of their bank and of its growth. 
They have sown and I hey have reaped, not 
tares or thorns; their seed has fallen upon 
fertile soil. 'I'he acorn which they have planted 



is growing into the mighty oak. Theirs is the 
just pride of accompHshment of making two 
blades of grass to grow, where but one formerly 
grew. Thus cities, states and nations come 
into being. 

Tames D. Henderson. 




i'asre filtv-hvc 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

iiin 

014 077 018 yt^ 




